• Articles • Across the Star Wars Universe

58 • Articles • Across the Star Wars Universe: A Journey into the World of the Italian Star Wars Fandom GIADA BASTANZI Università Ca’ Foscari of Venice ANDREA FRANCESCHETTI Università Ca’ Foscari of Venice Abstract: In this essay, we perform ethnographic fieldwork on the costuming, prop-making, and performances of the 501st Italica Garrison, the Italian sub-section of the 501st Legion, drawing on the "language" and "speech" theories of Gilbert Ryle and J. N. Findlay (Ryle & Findlay, 1961) and the theoretical position on "strategies" and "tactics" of Michael de Certeau (de Certeau, 2001). While considering the Star Wars franchise and its narratives as a "social phenomenon," we will examine if and how the official Italian fandom’s tactics and performances conform to Henry Jenkins’ concept of "textual poaching" (Jenkins, 2005). In fact, prop-making and collecting performances are in dialectical relation to the narratives of George Lucas, as Lucas’s narratives are in relation to the concepts of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces (Campbell, 1949). Vol. 16, no. 1 (2018) New Directions in Folklore 59 Introduction In 2012, LucasFilm Ltd. was purchased by the Disney company. As part of an enormous economic operation, the animation corporation put efforts into broadening the worldwide Star Wars franchise to cultivate the brand and reach more people than ever before. "A long time ago," in 1977, the first film in the franchise, Star Wars: A New Hope was released, creating a generation of fans—and nearly 25 years later, in 2001, The Phantom Menace was released. The new trilogy drew to Star Wars an entirely new generation of fans. This younger generation has high expectations for the franchise and are eager for new episodes and spin-offs. Being a Star Wars fan has always been more than just enjoying the films, but also includes buying toys and action figures and wearing characters’ costumes. There is an official Star Wars fandom—international organizations that are directly in touch with Disney—the most famous official costumers fan group being the 501st Legion. In this essay, we perform ethnographic fieldwork on the costuming, prop-making, and performances of the 501st Italica Garrison, the Italian sub-section of the 501st Legion, drawing on the "language" and "speech" theories of Gilbert Ryle and J. N. Findlay (Ryle & Findlay, 1961) and the theoretical position on "strategies" and "tactics" of Michael de Certeau (de Certeau, 2001). While considering the Star Wars franchise and its narratives as a "social phenomenon," we will examine if and how the official Italian fandom’s tactics and performances conform to Henry Jenkins’ concept of "textual poaching" (Jenkins, 2005). In fact, prop-making and collecting performances are in dialectical relation to the narratives of George Lucas, as Lucas’s narratives are in relation to the concepts of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces (Campbell, 1949). Vol. 16, no. 1 (2018) New Directions in Folklore 60 We attempt to conceptualize the ambiguous meaning of the term "original" for the 501st fandom and the Disney company. Our ethnographic observations focus on the tactics of prop-makers and art-collectors who approximate John Fiske’s theories of popular and fandom culture, in which "the art of people is the art of ‘making do’ with what they have" (Fiske, 1989). According to Daniel Miller’s "objectification processes" (Miller, 2013), costuming and art-collecting in the world of fandom are part of the process of commoditization, in addition to what Arjun Appadurai refers to as "diversion strategies" (Appadurai, 1986). Stormtrooper armor and Star Wars memorabilia would be considered by Fiske to be "textual productivity and participation" as a living example of "narrowcast texts" (Fiske, 1992). After the analysis of top-down narratives and bottom-up dynamics, the results of our ethnography fieldwork will shed light on the relationship between the Disney company and the fan world. The Journey Begins, by Giada Bastanzi Strategies and Tactics in the Fandom In the article titled "Use, Usage and Meaning," G. Ryle and J. N. Findlay make a distinction between "language" and "speech" (Ryle & Findlay, 1961) that recalls the famous distinction between langue and parole made by de Saussure. The Course in General Linguistics (de Saussure, 1959) illustrates two main concepts: langue is a defined object, with a homogeneous and concrete nature, consisting in the set of social and historical boundaries within which the individual linguistic acts take place. Parole is each momentary, individual act of language, based on a grammatical system that exists Vol. 16, no. 1 (2018) New Directions in Folklore 61 independently in some people’s minds. Both langue and parole are part of the whole of a language. Ryle writes that a "language" is a stock, a fund of words to be known and learned; a "speech," however, is a momentary operation of parts of that language chosen for that particular occasion (Ryle & Findlay 1961; 223-24). If we try to transpose this operation from Linguistics to another phenomenon, like the Star Wars fandom, we find a similar structure. On the one hand, there are the official Star Wars narratives: the movies and the mythology lying below them, encompassing the expanded universe of stories canonized by LucasFilm, Disney, and the fandom itself. These narratives are available to all types of audiences, and this is what I mean by "language." On the other hand, there are the different ways in which people use these top-down imposed systems, which form many different types of "speech." I think analysis of these approaches to the Star Wars franchise and narratives can help us to shed light on the thoughts behind the words in these types of speech, and to understand the value and meaning that Star Wars has assumed for audiences over the years. This passion of Star Wars fans doesn't end with the movie credits; it infiltrates everyday life through activities like conventions, exhibitions and, in some cases, even involvement in costuming, prop-making, and official clubs. Some of these activities are expensive and time-consuming; it may sound weird to some that adults with jobs, families, and lives have the time, energy, and money to invest in Star Wars costuming, but there is no discord between these two spheres. From the dynamics of performing and all that lies behind it, a kind of play emerges. These Star Wars-themed performances and events are like plays, or other worlds with their own formulated and formalized rules. These Vol. 16, no. 1 (2018) New Directions in Folklore 62 performances provide frameworks for the action. In the case of the 501st, members have put thought into every detail of playing the role of the character they are performing. In this context, we can say that the practices and rhetorics of costuming disrupt the set rules of an existing system. It is what de Certeau, in The Practice of Everyday Life, defines as a practical art: something different from the top-down patterns of culture, which ingenerates a space and builds up a system with its own rules (de Certeau, 2001). Through practices like these, we can understand what popular culture really means, i.e., the ability to infiltrate the institutions on which they depend, inventing new techniques, and in some way transforming their object. Star Wars prop-making and costuming are cross tactics arising in a universe that gives them some pattern to follow, but in which, at the same time, they introduce a possibility of change that gives the costumers the benefit of creativity. Canonical narrative and characters give fans something to be faithful to, and the consequence in everyday life is to elaborate on the canon with their own rules. De Certeau is also mentioned by Henry Jenkins in the article "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching" to explain how Star Trek fans make use of the dominant narrative of the plot. The aim of Jenkins’ article is to provide an alternative perspective on fandom, in which the "Trekkers" are perceived as poachers of textual meanings. "Poaching," to Jenkins, means moving "across lands belonging to someone else, like nomads poaching their way across fields they did not write," and is "a kind of cultural bricolage through which readers fragment texts" (Jenkins, 2005; 250). According to Jenkins, fandom is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them to serve different interests, as a way of transforming mass culture into popular culture in the way it is defined above. Vol. 16, no. 1 (2018) New Directions in Folklore 63 Therefore, becoming a fan translates the simple viewing of the Star Wars movies into a cultural activity through sharing feelings and thoughts about the content and joining a community of other fans with common interests; an oral counter-text is transformed into a more tangible form. Between the product and the consumer there is the distance of usage; in the case of Star Wars, it will be useful to analyze the complexity around merchandising as a market strategy on one side, and the tactics of reception and reinterpretation on the other. 501st Italica Garrison in Milan Our journey began "far, far away" during one of the events promoted by Disney Star Wars1: in addition to putting new products out on the market, parades and activities were also organized in which participants wore costumes as similar as possible to those in the movies. Our starting point is Lucca Comics & Games 2015, featuring the official Star Wars Italian costumers2 groups named the 501st Italica Garrison and the Rebel Legion Italian Base. There we met Giovanni, one of the key characters in our journey. He was wearing an Obi-Wan Kenobi costume, completely faithful to the original.

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